What Does Genesis 5:14 Mean?

And all the days of Kenan were nine hundred and ten years, and he died.

Genesis 5:14 · SDV

Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.

Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

And all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years: and he died.

THE KEY

A life can fill 910 years and still meet the same final words: and he died.

THE MEANING

This verse holds a whole life inside a number, 910 years, and still ends with the plain truth: he dies. However long its counted span becomes, a human life remains finite.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

A life that lasts long enough can escape death.

THE ROOT

וַיָּמֹת

wayyāmōt

GROWS FROM

מות

m-w-t

to die

“died” in this verse is wayyāmōt. This root connects the act of dying with death itself and the state of being dead. The final clause is not a ceremonial tag after the number: years accumulate, but the ending remains the same.

ALSO GROWS

māwet: Death

מָוֶת

The noun names the ending carried by the verb in this verse.

mēt: Dead; a dead person

מֵת

This form names the state reached when the act of dying is complete.

THE PATTERN

No measured human lifespan escapes the plain ending of death.

And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died.

Genesis 5:5 · SDVAdam’s lifespan is counted in full, then the same unadorned ending follows.

And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years, and he died.

Genesis 5:8 · SDVSeth’s years differ, but the refrain marks the same human boundary.

And as it is laid up for people to die once, and after this, judgment.

Hebrews 9:27 · SDVThe verse states plainly that death belongs to the human span.

THE THREAD

A time to bear, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted.

Ecclesiastes 3:2 · SDV

Ecclesiastes places dying within the recurring times of life, beside birth and planting and harvest. Genesis 5:14 compresses that rhythm into one counted span and its final clause.

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